Abstract
There are considerable chances where dark heritage contains disputes over such human rights and political regimes. This kind of heritage just not only needs to be focused on the physical structure conservation, but even the meaning behind the structure also plays an essential role to let the public clearly understand the controversial history. To face this issue, this study aims to take the concept of community engagement to investigate the strategies of stakeholders to shape the collective memory of the dark heritage and convey the spirit and value of human rights. This study takes the National Human Rights Museum in Taiwan as a case study, which used to be a Detention Center of the Military Law for political prisoners during Taiwan’s White Terror period (1949-1992) and it is one of the representative dark heritage in Taiwan. Although it is known to be a symbol of state violence, it has now converted to be an influential museum for all human rights education and reconciles multiple opinions in Taiwan. In recent years, the National Human Rights Museum has been involved in “representing” history through various activities, encouraging community engagement to bring hidden history and life stories to communicate with the public. Based on the concept of community engagement, this study emphasizes the sustainability of intangible memories of the heritage. Fieldwork, participatory observation, and case studies were adopted as the methods to investigate how the dark heritage establish a public platform for communication that assists society gradually moving towards harmony.
Presenters
Chen Hsing YangStudent, Ph.D., Institute of Creative Industries Design, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan Hui Wen Lin
Associate Professor, Institute of Creative Industries Design, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Dark Heritage, Human Rights Museum, Community Engagement, Social Communication
